Maybe this is the last challenge open to man on the surface of the planet - to row round the world. Olly Hicks has just started rowing round Antarctica, from Tasmania, and expects it to take several years. A few people have attempted this before but not succeeded. This builds on his solo rowing across the Atlantic Ocean.

See the Virgin Global Row site here: Olly Hicks.

Discovered this seriously random site of do-it-yourself biographies called Squidwho today. Someone has even gone to the trouble to put in an entry about me, or is it my namesakes of American poet or a ship sunk during World War 2? 

As I renew my subscription, I realise that it is a year since I started this blog, care of Blogharbor. It's been fun to develop an on-line journal, although I sometimes lose the plot of why I am doing it!

This is probably because I always intended it to be a "whole life" blog, for me to chat about what I'm up to and what is interesting me. I'm not sure what this does for you the reader, as I realise that the kind of things I talk about keep changing!

When I started the weblog I had a quote from Anthony de Mello in mind, from his book The Song of the Bird.

The disciples were full of questions about God.

Said the master, "God is the Unknown and the Unknowable. Every statement about him, every answer to your questions, is a distortion of the truth."

The disciples were bewildered. "Then why do you speak about him at all?"

"Why does the bird sing?" said the master.

There is a postscript to this, which you'll have to buy the book to read!

Amazon UK link

 

A current family enterprise is the creation of a new website for the business, and I've been delighted and impressed by the creative genius that has been unleashed in the family, as well as the skill in turning images into a site.

I've been researching ways of doing this so that it is easy to make changes after the initial design. The deluxe way to do this is with a Content Management System (CMS). I have also been looking at "Instant Sites," of which there are many, to see if that is a good route to go at least for the first year or so as the costs are less. Many of the Instant Sites are easy to use and have good functionality, but do not look business-like. In particular they use ready-made graphic headers that can look cheesy and cannot be replaced. We have decided to run with Web Eden which is powerful, flexible, and inexpensive - and you can do a free trial. I recommend it.